A “mountain” of challenges awaits Bernard Drainville in the field of education

The new education minister, Bernard Drainville, believes that “the biggest professional challenge” of his life will be to find solutions to the labor shortage in the school network.

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Many of the problems facing teachers and students, such as too many classes and the presence of a considerable number of students with special needs, would be at least partially solved if there were no staff shortage, Bernard Drainville underlined in an interview with TVA Nouvelles .

“It becomes a matter of manpower. There is a lack of teachers, specialized educators, professionals, ”she said.

The minister also says he is responsible for finding solutions to the staff shortage. ” Which ones? I’m not ready to say, but I sure will want to try things. I want to come up with different things than what we did. »

“If we are able to make progress in at least partially solving the shortage problem, we will be happy,” he added.

But the Minister also acknowledges that the school network is grappling with a multitude of other difficulties, such as the dilapidated state of the schools and the absence of an adequate information system that allows them to have an overview of everything that goes on each of the institutions.

“I see the mountain, the worse it is, the steeper it is”, whispers Bernard Drainville, who nevertheless consoles himself by noting that people are aware of the extent of the work to be done.

“People see the challenge. Everyone I meet says, ‘Hey man, you have the ministry!’ People are aware of the difficulty,” she said.

Bernard Drainville therefore does not promise to fix everything, but intends to go far and “eat the elephant one bite at a time”.

“If we can improve things a little bit, there will be a lot of people who will be happy about it,” he said.